Move to make 18 new school leave age

The school-leaving age will be effectively increased to 18 under a "truly radical" package of reforms to be unveiled tomorrow, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has declared.

In an interview with the Standard, Ms Kelly vowed that the long-awaited Education White Paper will reward high-performing schools and allow more children from poor backgrounds to go to Oxford and Cambridge.

She signalled the death knell of old-fashioned comprehensives, but hit out at plans by some Downing Street aides to re-introduce selection by ability to state schools.

Ms Kelly's plans to overhaul secondary education, which will be unveiled in the Commons, are expected to include:

Keeping A-levels and GCSEs but with a new A++ grade to stretch the brightest pupils

Allowing high-achieving pupils to take exams younger

Guaranteeing a place in sixth form, training or apprenticeship for every 16-year-old

Moving from "comprehensive schools" to a "comprehensive education" in specialist schools, colleges and on-the-job training

Challenging incentives" for schools that stretch every child, penalties for those that don't

Sanctions against parents of disruptive pupils.

The White Paper will be the Government's formal response to a review by former chief schools inspector Sir Mike Tomlinson. He urged the abolition of existing exams and the introduction of a European-style diploma covering all abilities.

Critics claim Ms Kelly and Tony Blair will take the "safe" option by keeping A-levels to reassure Middle England ahead of a general election. But the Education Secretary insisted her proposals represent the biggest shake-up in British education for decades.

"This is a radical set of proposals which will transform opportunities for every child and put flesh on the rhetoric of equality of opportunity," she said.

One of the biggest changes is making sure that nobody leaves education or training before the age of 18. Britain is 24th out of 28 industrialised countries for its staying-on rate, with 71 per cent of 16-year-olds staying in education.

"That is clearly unacceptable," said Ms Kelly. "For reasons of both economic success and social justice, we have to tackle that.

"At present, 16 is the age at which you select to stay on or drop out. We want the expectation to be that you continue in education. It means effectively raising the school leaving age to 18."

Those who prefer a vocational education will be given more time with employers. They will not have to follow academic studies, but will face literacy and numeracy tests.

Ms Kelly said she also wanted the poorest children to be given a real chance at university. She pointed to the success of £30-a-week education maintenance allowances for teenagers in London which increased staying-on rates in some parts by 17 per cent. She criticised the "poverty of expectation" at some state schools and lamented the fact that just 19 per cent of working-class children go to higher education, compared with 50 per cent of professional-class children.

"I would expect that to change," she said. "We need to make sure every child feels if they have the ability and put in the work then they have routes which will get them into Oxford and Cambridge."

In opposition, Mr Blair told the Standard's political commentator Anne McElvoy that secondary schools in Islington would be up to scratch in a second term of a Labour government. That has not happened in N1, nor in other swathes of London.

But Ms Kelly says her four children will attend local state primary and secondary schools and she will reveal a "timetable" for improving standards everywhere.

She also wants to "reclaim" the word comprehensive. "It's about moving from the idea of a comprehensive school to a comprehensive education... using networks of schools and colleges and employers to provide those sort of opportunities so you get a more rounded education," she said.

But Ms Kelly dismisses reports that some of Mr Blair's advisers want limited selection on ability for state schools. One idea is for schools to follow Northern Ireland's system where 10 per cent of pupils can be selected.

But Ms Kelly makes clear she is no doormat for No 10. "There will be no return to selection," she said. "Northern Ireland has a very skewed system, which has a very significant rate of drop-out at the bottom and quite high achievement at the top end. We haven't been studying that model here."